Monday, December 5, 2016

WhatsApp to drop support for older Android, iOS and Windows Phone devices

WhatsApp will pull the plug on support for older versions of Android, iOS and Windows Phone devices

WhatsApp will soon stop supporting smartphones running older version of Android, iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry and Nokia's Symbian operating systems. Back in February, WhatsApp had announced plans to pull the plug on support for above mentioned ecosystems and later extended support for BB OS and Symbian till June 30, 2017.

At the end of this year, WhatsApp will stop working on devices running Android version 2.2 or lower, iOS 6 or lower and Windows Phone 7. While WhatsApp is stopping support, the effect won't be huge since the market share of these operating systems have diminished overtime. According to Google's own dashboard, Android 2.2 is running on just 0.1 percent devices. Most Android users are either using Marshmallow or Lollipop or KitKat, so the effect will be very much limited.

According to Apple's November Dashboard, only 8 percent devices running iOS version older than iOS 9. WhatsApp has decided to stop supporting iOS version 6.0 or older and if you are on such ancient versions then you should know that the support ends this year and should immediately upgrade to a latest version.

Windows Phone has been a dead ecosystem for most part of this year and WhatsApp is aptly pulling down support for all devices running Windows Phone 7.1. Microsoft has updated every Windows Phone 7.1 device to Windows Phone 8.1 so you should immediately upgrade to continue using WhatsApp on your smartphone.

While BlackBerry and Nokia users have some reprieve for now, it is not long before WhatsApp kills its support for those ecosystems too. WhatsApp says these ecosystems "don't offer the kind of capabilities we need to expand our app's features in the future."

WhatsApp has over 1 billion monthly active users and has been updated with tonnes of features since its acquisition by Facebook. WhatsApp currently offers features beyond messaging with support for voice and video calls.

Interesting Galleries Top 10 Android launchers (December...
  • Best Alternative Apps for your Android Phone

    The 10 best job hunting apps on Android

  • The 10 scariest horror games on Android

    Android app stores: 5 best alternatives to Google Play Store

  • Best Android apps for rooted devices

    18 apps for a memorable Valentine's Day

  • Top 15 Android games that you should play

    The 20 best looking games for mobile phones

  • 8 Android apps to tickle your funny bone

    17 must have apps for any Android device (plus alternatives)

  • 5 apps to get the Android Lollipop look on your smartphone

    Take control of your Android device with these apps

  • 7 weird and strange apps for your Smartphone

    10 neat Google apps you may not know of

  • 10 essential Indian apps for Android devices

    Perfect Viewer


  • Source: WhatsApp to drop support for older Android, iOS and Windows Phone devices

    No comments:

    Post a Comment